DSLR and old Vivitar flash

[tijean]

I picked up an old Vivitar 225 flash in a box lot at an auction. It

is mostly fun junk (Brownies, a Bentley, a Chinon, ect.) but I am

wondering if this flash may actually be useful on my *istDS. I would

test it out and see what happens, but first I wanted to ask if anyone

knew of any darmage it could cause. This may seem silly, but my

knowledge of cameras drops off into the pathetic range when we get to

the subject of electronics. I don't use a flash nearly enough to

warrent $200 on the Pentax or Sigma flash made for the *istDS, but if

this one won't electricult my camera or anything, it may be fun to

play with.

[Sandeha Lynch]

My first thought is that if the old flash has one centre contact, it should be ok, no matter how many mini contacts the camera hotshoe has. I used a variety of manual flashes on my MZ-S. However, I don't know about the actual or boosted power of the Vivitar. On the other hand, if the istDS has a PC flash socket that is for manual flashes (etc) anyway, it would be perfectly safe used with flash cable. Off-camera flash will invariably give better results than on-camera.

[mdickerson]

Hi Jessica .. I can't say for sure but I can tell you that I have tried a few old Sunpak flashes of various vintages on the *ist DS without breaking anything.

 

However, if you search google you will find some discussion of certain old flashes (such as early editions of the Vivitar 283) that are dangerous to modern cameras because of their high trigger voltages. (The flash presents some voltage between the center contact and the rest of the shoe, and the camera triggers the flash by momentarily closing a switch that completes the circuit. A new flash doesn't use more than a few volts for this purpose, but an old one might use hundreds. A totally mechanical switch on e.g. a K1000 couldn't care less what the voltage is, but an electronic switch might burn out at high voltages.) It's hard to find any concrete information, but it should be pretty easy to test the trigger voltage with a multimeter if you have one.

[derekb]

I would second the info from Michael. Some older flashes do have a very high voltage trigger. I would suggest that you go to adorama.com or some other photo.net sponsored retailer and mount the flash with a PC socket to hot shoe adapter to be safe. This allows you to trigger the hot shoe of the flash from you PC socket and if you want still mount it in your hot shoe. There is no electrical contact then between your hot shoe and the flashes hot shoe mount.

[tijean]

Thanks everyone. I will definately have to dig up that old thread and the multimeter. I'll definately have to pick up a PC socket to hot shoe adapter.

[William Shotts]

High trigger voltages are a real danger to modern electronic cameras. I believe there is an ISO standard for trigger voltages which is (iirc) 6 volts. I have an early Vivitar 283 which is around 300 volts. I have used 10 volt triggers on my Canon G2 without harm but I would never in God's green earth use the 283 on it.

 

To do so, you need one of these:

 

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=245292&is=REG

 

Hooking up the flash with PC cords, hotshoe adapters won't change the trigger voltage when it gets to the semiconductor switching circuit in a modern camera.